Monday, March 26, 2007

Patti Culea is a very, very talented dollmaker and she has written several fantastic books on dollmaking - her latest book arrived in the shop today and I snaffled one for myself (don't you worry about that!) It's terrific - I love beading (thanks to Patti introducing me to Peyote Stitch). The most exciting thing is that Patti included my shop as a place to get resources in her book - so now I can be famous all round the world. Thanks Patti ;-). I should also mention that Patti produced this book in cahoots with Laura McCabe (an awesome beader would be something of an understatement in discribing her work) and Annie Hesse (a cloth doll maker who is also a talented beader. The work in this book is dribble inducing.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut range arrived in the shop late last month - I made a skirt for my daughter Claire and also a simple charm square quilt from this lovely fabric. I am hoping it might be a project for Patchwork & Stitching (and will definitely be a quilt kit!) I am sure they will take a much better picture of it than I have here (which was at the quilt top stage). I stayed up till 2.30am to finish the bindings so I could deliver it to the magazine - I was tired but happy I'd got it finished. It was a bit of a marathon because I decided to stipple quilt the whole darn thing - argh! what was I thinking? It did improve my stippling though!

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Claire's last twirling skirt literally fell apart (from being loved to death). She's been after a new one for a while. So this afternoon I finally whipped up one out of the new Fresh Cut range from Heather Bailey. I am quite impressed with my own skill as I am usually hopeless at a) clothes and b) ruffles - so I think it turned out quite well. Here she is cooking the bbq and having a twirl on the deck.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

You will remember I started a flat relief needlefelted piece some time ago based on one of Patti Culea's tome pages. I finally got my needles out (and a four needle punch) and added some more to the page. Still needs to be felted some more and them free motion embroidered over the top. But here's an update.